Fact: President Obama laid out key priorities that had to be part of any deal. Those priorities are reflected in this compromise. First, we avoided default which would have plunged the economy into a deep recession, imperiling the well-being of millions of Americans. Second, the initial down payment on deficit reductions does not cut low-income and safety-net programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Third, we set up a path forward that will put pressure on Congress to adopt a balanced approach. And finally, we raised the debt ceiling until 2013, ensuring that House Republicans could not use the threat of default in just a few months to force severe cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

(emphasis in the original)

This is just sad. Even worse, it isn’t close to being true.

At no point in the debt ceiling fight did President Obama say the initial deficit reduction “down payment” shouldn’t cut Medicare and Social Security. In fact, it was President Obama who wanted a single payment in the form of a $4 trillion grand bargain. It was also Obama who put Medicare and Social Security benefits cuts on the table as part of the grand bargain package.

Obama caved so completely that the White House had to invent completely fake ex-post-facto criteria just so they could claim that Obama held firm on something.

Well, it’s even worse. Not only did he utterly cave. The whole premise of his argument was wrong anyway.

Krugman has been right along. He need a bigger stimulus and he needed a second stimulus. One thing you had to say about stubborn old Dubya. He had the strength of Cheney’s convictions. He knew how to stay the course.

Obama has no course. So in that sense I guess you could say he didn’t cave. You have to have had a position to hold before you can cave on it.